Gamburo: The town Boko Haram destroyed

[muriel_volestrangler]

What shocked me was that Boko Haram could launch a major attack on a smallish town like Gamburo, close to the border with Cameroon, and kill 375 people - and yet this would scarcely be reported in the rest of Nigeria, let alone the outside world.

It happened eight days ago. My television team and I went there with the local governor, Kashim Shattima. Mr Shattima is a brave and conscientious man, but his security team made him wait for an entire week before allowing him to go there.
...
The situation in Gamburo itself was quite extraordinary. Over the years I have seen dozens of towns which have been attacked by guerrillas, from Bosnia to Angola and from Iraq to Peru. But I have never seen damage on this scale.

Boko Haram attacked it with a fury that is fortunately rare. It was as though they wanted to wipe it off the face of the earth. They arrived in extraordinary force - there were 400 of them, according to one man who watched the attack from hiding - and set about killing people and destroying cars and buildings coldly and methodically.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27399656

(Simpson is one of the most experienced foreign correspondents in the world - if he says he's never seen guerillas do this much damage, it really means something)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K & R nt

[maddezmom]

2. Horrible

375 dead.

[JI7]

3. does nigeria just not have resources to fight this ? because these type of attacks

have been happening for a few years now. and it seems to be getting worse.

before the girls were kidnapped i read about another attack which happened and people in nigeria in that area were posting on twitter and other things about how nothing is being done .

[Cha]

4. ..

[riderinthestorm]

5. K&R nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. How sad

[freshwest]

7. A war zone... their lives could be so much better. n/t